57.1 Percent of U.S. Personal Bankruptcies Are Due to Medical Bills

That is according to an article in The Atlantic on the association between health and homelessness in the United States,

The connection between housing and health is coldly logical. The sick and vulnerable become homeless, and the homeless become sicker and more vulnerable.
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Although the tipping point is often the loss of a job, sickness or injury often precede it. Sickness and injuries make holding a job difficult, which leads to income declining and homelessness for those without a safety net. Due to the mostly employer-based health insurance coverage system in the U.S., no job means no health insurance. The combination of unemployment and poor health can then lead to financial ruin. Nerdwallet estimated that 57.1 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills, making it the leading cause of the financial calamity that often precedes homelessness.

The article continues with,

The specific therapy for homelessness and its associated health issues is housing.

​The approach known as “Housing First” is very simple: Provide housing, give support, and people’s health will improve. Skeptics may argue that this approach is naïve and refer to the welfare reform debates from years ago which advocated for the boot-straps approach and questioned whether a person “deserves” housing or is “ready” to make full use of it. Lastly, people may argue that we could never afford it.

Fortunately, Housing First has already proved successful. The first pilot was started in 1988 by PATH Beyond Shelter, a homeless program in Los Angeles. This model focused on getting people into permanent supportive housing rather than the usual patchwork of services at homeless shelters. Beyond housing, Housing First programs provide individuals and families with case management services to connect people with health care and social services.

Homeless programs across the U.S. have since adopted it. In 2009, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that a program in Seattle that provided housing to merely 95 severe alcoholics saved the city $4 million by decreasing health care costs and jail-related expenses. The program cost less than $14,000 per person per year. Cities such as San Francisco, Denver, and Minneapolis also demonstrated success, but most notable is what Salt Lake City and the entire state of Utah have accomplished. Salt Lake City virtually ended chronic homelessness among veterans. The entire state has decreased chronic homelessness by 91 percent according to state officials.​